Weightlifting at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Weightlifting events in 1956 were held at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, a Royal Heritage Site that was actually originally built in 1880 to host the Melbourne International Exposition. For the 1956 Olympics, it hosted weightlifting, wrestling, and the fencing portion of the modern pentathlon. There was no change in the weightlifting program in 1956, which saw the same seven weight classes as held in Helsinki in 1952.

The United States and Soviet Union resumed their Cold War weightlifting competition at Melbourne, which had started at Helsinki. Both won seven medals in 1956, with the two nations winning all seven events, four won by the United States and three by the Soviets. This would be the end of such battles at the Olympics, as this was the last Olympics at which the USA could be considered a weightlifting power.